Connection Conundrums

In a scientific study conducted earlier this evening, I have deduced the following:

1. In theory it should be possible to make an eleven-minute connection between your train arriving into London St Pancras and your train departing from London Euston – although you’ll have to run.

2. If your inbound train is delayed however and the eleven minutes becomes seven it becomes a fair bit less likely that you’ll succeed.

3. The distance from the far side of St Pancras to the platforms at Euston is, according to google maps, 0.7 miles. If you have a seven-minute connection this essentially becomes five-and-a-half minutes (Virgin trains close their doors a minute before departure and you have two ticket barriers / checks to negotiate). Five-and-a-half minutes to do 0.7 miles equates to just over a seven-and-a-half-minte-a-mile running pace (about a 46 minute 10k). This is of course an average and you’ll have to cross three roads and a bus depot in the process (not to mention two large station concourses). Oh and you’re wearing a large rucksack.

4. If you do decide to attempt the above it is essential (I can’t stress this enough) that you stick to the shortest route, as proposed by google maps, and don’t accidentally end up running down a side street and through a slightly dodgy-looking estate (ok very dodgy looking).

5. It is also essential that, if you get to the platform at Euston just in time to see the doors lock prior to departure, you don’t have a planet-of-the-apes style meltdown where you sink to knees cursing and crying before curling up in the foetal position on the floor.

6. It is also essential that, rather than replaying the failed attempt in your mind to see what you could have done better, you pay attention to when the next possible train is so you don’t have to repeat the whole performance.

7. Once you’ve successfully got on a train you should then sit there and write a blog post that lays out in hard facts how difficult that connection was to make so you don’t feel quite so bad about missing it.